Uncontrollable music show advertisements

VietNamNet Bridge – While state art troupes have to accomplish many formalities to have the licence to hang 20 banners in Hanoi, private show organizers hang advertising banners anywhere they like, from trees to electrical poles.

8am at the Truong Chinh – Le Trong Tan intersection, while drivers couldn’t breath because of smoke from thousands of vehicles and sharp sounds from horns, two loudspeakers placed on the top of a taxi suddenly broadcasted at their highest capacity.

The sound from these loudspeakers drowned the noise of the traffic, introducing the show of some young, unknown singers. All of them were advertised as famous stars in the world of music in Vietnam.

Neglecting drivers’ discomfort, the loudspeakers released brassy sounds such as: Singer X will be romantic with a song named “Chiec Khan Gio Am” (Warm scarf of win) and Hot Girl Y will perform the song that has made her a star; the show will be organised at a small stadium named Dinh Cong.

People in Nga Tu So, Hanoi were recently “tortured” by the advertising of music shows broadcast from loudspeakers on taxies, which traveled along the roads several times a day.

Local people said that such forms of advertising have become very popular of recent and they are anxious about it.

Banners advertising music shows are hung everywhere. The 1 kilometre long Ton That Tung road is “decorated” with a hundreds of advertising banners. Besides banners advertising music shows at “village level” are many banners advertising the promotion campaigns of supermarkets, IT centres, and English teaching centres, to name a few.

It is luxurious for private show organizers to design good advertising banners. All of banners look similar with green and red scripts in a mess on yellow cloth or paper.

Private show organizers seem to be “wiser” than state ones when they don’t hang these banners near government agencies, but in residential areas and crowded intersections. Many banners are hung proudly next to the stall of traffic police though the shows were held one month ago. They will later be covered by banners advertising for the new shows.

More serious, more losses

Officials of state art troupes are very upset about this situation. Truong Nhuan, deputy director of the Tuoi Tre Theatre, said: “It takes us several months to arrange a new drama and a lot of time to get licence for it. We need more time to ask for the licence to hang advertising banners. This city is very large but they approve only 20 banners for a drama”.

People’s Artist Tran Binh, Director of the Central Music Theatre added: “You are not allowed to hang these 20 banners anywhere you like. I asked to hang them in the city’s centre or residential areas but I was told to hang only ten in central Hanoi and the remaining ten in Ha Dong (a nearby rural area which became part of Hanoi last year)”

Binh continued to complain: “It is not the end. They don’t allow us to hang banners early, but just several days before the shows take place, otherwise we will be fined. The songs are legal. The singers are famous but our shows have to wait to be checked and licenced. The more we are serious, the more we are at disadvantage!”

For this reason, most of orthodox art troupes in Hanoi only hang advertising banners in front of their theatres.

A private show organizer who wants to be anonymous told Tuoi Tre that cultural inspectors clearly know about private show organizers. If they don’t know, they can know through loudspeakers on the street. “If they want to fine them, it is very easy,” he said.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre

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